Motion Performance: Tales of a Muscle Car Builder (Book)

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by Martyn L. Schorr (Author), Joe Oldham (Foreword)

Book Description

It was a driver's dream: Along with the full factory warranty, your car came with a guarantee of 11.5-second quarter-mile times. It was also Joel Rosen's dream, and in 1964, he set out to make it a reality. First he built fast cars. Then, taking a page from Ford's "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" strategy, he built a reputation by beating all comers on drag strips and in street races. By 1967, Rosen's Motion Performance was the place to go if you wanted a true muscle car—and, if you ordered a Baldwin-Motion Chevrolet, a muscle car with a full factory warranty. Motion Performance tells the inside story of how it all happened. Brilliantly illustrated with period pictures and modern color photos, the book takes readers along as Cobras, Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, even Volkswagen Beetles roll into the shop to get torn down and rebuilt into cars unbeatable on the streets and drag strips. Marty Schorr gives a first-hand account of seven years of high-performance life--and of how it all came to a screeching halt at the hands of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. A once-in-a-lifetime tale of power and speed, told by one of the principals who put that performance within reach, Motion Performance makes the story of a briefly and thrillingly lived dream available to everyone.

From the Inside Flap
In 1964, Joel Rosen and Marty Schorr decided to turn their high-performance dreams into high-performance reality. Calling the new entity Motion Performance, they started building some very, very fast street cars. To take things to the next level, Motion followed Ford's adage "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" and raced its cars at drag strips on weekends and on the streets at night. Those cars beat all comers and Motion started building a reputation.
By 1967, Motion Performance was recognized as the place to go if you wanted to build serious strength into your muscle car. To expand the franchise, Rosen and Schorr formed a legendary relationship with Baldwin Chevrolet, allowing any gearhead of the day to buy an 11.5-second car off the lot--and it came with a full factory warranty.

No other aftermarket muscle car tuner took the hands-on, no-stone-unturned approach followed by Motion: cars were rolled into the shop, torn apart, then rebuilt with the highest-quality components available at the time.

For 10 years, this high-performance flame burned on. Cobras, Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, even Volkswagen Beetles were transformed into unbeatable cars that ruled the streets and drag strips. Then one day it all came to a screeching halt. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency threatened to levy fines of up to $50,000 per car Motion Performance sold. And that was that, the end of an amazing chapter of high-performance history.

This is the inside story of how the cars were built, who they were built for, and how they ruled the street and strip. And it's the story of the twenty-first-century resurrection of the Baldwin-Motion brand. Richly illustrated with both period and modern photography, author Marty Schorr knows where the bodies are buried and tells us how they got there.

From the Back Cover
In 1964, Joel Rosen and Marty Schorr set out to make muscle car history. Motion Performance tells the inside story of how it all happened, from racing Corvettes on the streets and drag strips of the East Coast to teaming up with Baldwin Chevrolet to create the legendary Baldwin-Motion muscle supercars; from the EPA shutting the whole thing down to the whole thing being reborn forty years later with the debut of the Baldwin-Motion 540 Camaro SuperCoupe. Brilliantly illustrated with period pictures and modern color photos, this book takes readers on a wild ride as Cobras, Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, even Volkswagen Beetles roll into the shop to get torn down and rebuilt into cars unbeatable on the streets and strips. It's a once-in-a-lifetime tale of power and speed, told by one of the principals who put that performance within everyone's reach.

About the Author
Marty Schorr has been involved in the high-performance automotive industry since the mid-1950s, when he was publicity director of the Draggin Wheels Hot Rod Club in New York. First a photojournalist, then a magazine editor (Hi-Performance CARS, Custom Rodder, Speed & Supercar, CHEVY ACTION, VETTE), Schorr also published the Quicksilver Supercar series. He worked with Joel Rosen from 1967 to 1974, launching and building Baldwin-Motion, Motion Supercar Club, and Phase III Publishing.

For almost 18 years starting in 1982, Schorr's public relations agency, PMPR, Inc., represented Buick on the East Coast. In 1987 he wrote the book Buick GNX: A Performance Legend in Its Own Time for GM.

Marty Schorr is currently a public relations/marketing/advertising consultant and resides in Sarasota, Florida, with his wife, Sharon, and their Baldwin-Motion Iso Grifo coupe and C6 Corvette convertible.